Who lives behind the walls of the Kremlin. Office furniture and everything around it

At first there were quite a lot of them, and they lived, as a rule, quite modestly. And then they began to slowly “clean” the Kremlin. To begin with, they evicted everyone who had nothing to do with the Soviet regime and settled in “our own people.”

LENIN SET STALIN IN HIS MISTAKE'S APARTMENT

The eviction, which took place in the summer of 1920, took place in a revolutionary manner. Within a week, more than half of the 1,100 Kremlin residents were resettled - those who had no relation to Soviet institutions. “In the Kremlin, as throughout Moscow,” wrote Leon Trotsky, “there was a continuous struggle over apartments, which were not enough. Moscow was then filled with a “peripheral mass” that poured into the capital from numerous places and towns.”

As soon as the living space became available, the first thousand of “our own people” moved in, and six months later there were already 2,100 co-workers registered in the Kremlin. Who exactly lived behind the Kremlin wall was a state secret for a long time. Personal and other data about Kremlin residents began to be classified as secret already in mid-1918, and even now they are in hard-to-reach archives.

Ilyich initially lived in the National Hotel, but already in March 1918 he moved to the Kremlin, and from January 19, 1919 he registered in apartment No. 1 of the former Senate building.

Naturally, he wanted all his comrades to be, as they say, “at hand.” Moreover, under Lenin, not only residential buildings were inhabited, but also Kremlin towers, guardhouses, cathedrals and even the bell tower of Ivan the Great. Naturally, Stalin, Trotsky, Zinoviev, Dzerzhinsky, Kalinin, Voroshilov, Kamenev, Sverdlov, Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky, Molotov, Tsuryupa, Mikoyan, Lunacharsky, Klara settled next to the founder of Leninism (as they say now - “within walking distance”) Zetkin and others.

An interesting fact: in the building of the Amusement Palace (it is located on the right hand, if you enter the Kremlin through the gates of the Trinity Tower), very decent apartments (apartment No. 1) were provided to Inessa Armand, a well-known figure in the women's movement at that time. The story of the allocation of the apartment becomes clearer if you read Lenin’s note to the Kremlin commandant Pavel Malkov: “T. Malkov! The giver of this, comrade. Inessa Armand, member of the Central Election Commission. She needs an apartment for 4 people. As we talked to you today, you will show her what is available, that is, show her the apartments that you had in mind. Lenin."

One can argue a lot about what kind of relationship the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars had with the mentioned lady, but to clarify, I will quote the words of another Kremlin resident of those times and also the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (since 1930) - Vyacheslav Molotov. In the mid-seventies, talking with the writer Felix Chuev, he said: “Interesting. Armand. Inessa Armand. Lenin writes: “Dear, dear friend! Hello dear friend!" I remember Inessa Armand well. Non-Russian type. A pretty woman. In my opinion, nothing special... Lenin treated her very tenderly. Bukharin told me directly that this was Lenin’s passion. He was very close to Lenin, and he probably knew Inessa well.”

And when the writer asked Molotov a question about how he assessed Krupskaya’s attempt to transfer Inessa Armand from Moscow somewhere far away, Ilyich’s comrade-in-arms answered directly: “Of course, this is an unusual situation. Lenin, simply put, has a mistress. And Krupskaya is a sick person.”

The development of the situation is well known: in August 1920, Lenin sent Inessa to rest in Kislovodsk, “to Sergo” (Sergo Ordzhonikidze was entrusted with her care). In those days, as indeed today, the North Caucasus was turbulent. When another shooting began, Ilyich decided to return Armand to the capital. But she only made it as far as Beslan, where she quickly contracted cholera and died suddenly. According to other sources, Inessa died in Nalchik on September 24, 1920, but this does not change the essence of the matter.

After Inessa Armand's body was brought to Moscow in a lead coffin, on Lenin's orders she was buried in a necropolis near the Kremlin wall. And faithful Nadezhda Konstantinovna remained nearby...

The apartment of Ilyich’s beloved was empty for only a few months. In January 1921, “thanks to the intervention of V.I. Lenin,” Stalin and his wife moved from their cramped apartment in the Maid of Honor corridor of the Grand Kremlin Palace to the spacious apartment No. 1 of the Amusement Palace. The same one, designed for four people, in which Inessa Armand lived.

The apartment, according to some reports, turned out to be bad. It was there that on the night of November 9, 1932, Nadezhda Alliluyeva committed suicide. In the summer of 1975, Vyacheslav Molotov recalled the reasons for her suicide: “Jealousy, of course. In my opinion, completely unfounded. There was a hairdresser to whom he (Stalin. - Author) went to shave. The wife was unhappy with this. A very jealous person... What do you remember? Stalin picked up the pistol with which she shot herself and said: “And it was a toy pistol, it shot once a year”... ... “I was a bad husband, I had no time to take her to the movies,” said Stalin.”

Immediately after his wife’s suicide, Stalin changed his apartment, moving to another apartment in the Amusement Palace, and then moved to the 1st building of the Kremlin. True, he rarely visited his Kremlin apartment, since already in December 1933 he finally moved to the Near Dacha in Volynskoye.

By the way, there were shootings in the Kremlin more than once in pre-war times. In the thirties, the son of the “all-Union headman” Mikhail Kalinin and the Kremlin commandant, career security officer Fyodor Rogov, shot themselves to death...

“CLEANING” THE KREMLIN: FROM STALIN TO KHRUSHCHEV

Of course, the Kremlin could not accommodate everyone. In the twenties, more than 5,000 people worked in various institutions located inside the Kremlin wall. And they lived not only there, but also in the city - apartments were specially allocated for them at different addresses, but, as a rule, not far from their place of work. And in 1928, construction began on the famous House on the Embankment. Then it was not yet Serafimovich Street, but All Saints Street. This was apparently the first large house specially built for the party and state elite. Officially called the “house of the Central Executive Committee and Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR,” it was more of a residential complex that occupied an entire block.

The entire infrastructure was autonomous: a store, a hairdresser, a laundry, a first-aid post, a post office, a savings bank, a nursery and a kindergarten, a club, a library, a gym, a dining room. Naturally, it had the maximum possible and few amenities available to anyone at that time: central heating, hot water supply, gas, elevators (passenger and freight), telephone, radio. The commandant's office was responsible for ensuring security and order. Already in 1931, the first residents moved in, who were “members of the government, members of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the Central Committee of the Party, figures of the Comintern, old Bolsheviks, People's Commissars and their deputies, heads of main departments, senior military leadership, diplomats, prominent scientists, writers, outstanding artists." In parentheses, we note that the “turnover” in this building was quite serious. Hundreds of residents of this seemingly elite house, after living in it for a year or two, moved to Kolyma to fell wood, or were even shot...

The Kremlin, of course, also did not escape a serious “cleansing”. After the murder of Kirov in 1934, the so-called “Kremlin case” began to unfold. As a result, already in May 1935, Stalin approved the draft sentence for 108 convicted “Kremlin members.”

Those who were under suspicion, but not yet convicted, moved outside the Kremlin. The authorities' reasoning was ironclad - the need to ensure the security of the leaders of the Soviet state. As a result of the mass eviction, by June 1935, only 374 residents (102 families) remained in the Moscow Kremlin. And in total in the period 1936 - 1939. 463 people were discharged from the Kremlin. Information about 31 people was transferred to the new registration book.

Not only employees, but also many high-ranking residents left the Kremlin apartments. Some moved to the House on the Embankment and other elite buildings, while others no longer needed registration at all. In 1936-1939, Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev and other figures of the so-called “opposition” were shot. Some were taken to prison directly from the Kremlin. In 1938 - 1939 The Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decided to relocate the command and control personnel of the Kremlin commandant's office and all civilian workers and employees from the Kremlin. Only “commanders, military commissars and chiefs of staff of a special-purpose regiment and a separate command battalion, as well as some other commanders, were allowed to stay on the Kremlin territory. For those being evicted, houses of the Moscow Council on 1st Meshchanskaya Street were allocated (a total of more than 300 apartments).

During the Great Patriotic War, the housing issue in the Kremlin was frozen. In 1941, nine leaders of the USSR were registered and had apartments in the Kremlin. Stalin, as we already mentioned, officially lived in apartment No. 1 of building No. 1. Voroshilov - in apartment No. 19 of building No. 9 (BKD apartments), Kaganovich in apartment No. 1 of building No. 20 (Children's half of BKD). And the most “densely populated” was building No. 5 (Kavalersky). The “cavaliers” were Molotov (apartment No. 36), Mikoyan (No. 33), Voznesensky (No. 28), Zhdanov (No. 34), Andreev (No. 22), Kalinin (No. 30). Another 68 apartments were occupied mainly by personal pensioners, relatives of Lenin, Dzerzhinsky, Ordzhonikidze and others, as well as families of the leadership of the commandant’s office, the NKGB - NKVD...

HOW THE KREMLIN NEARLY WAS COMPLETELY REBUILDED

In the post-war years, the Soviet leadership suddenly became preoccupied with “perestroika.” They decided to rebuild the Kremlin and Red Square. Although this attempt was actually not the first under Soviet rule...

Let me digress slightly from the topic by recalling an anecdote that appeared in the mid-nineties. “The resurrected Stalin appears at a meeting of the State Duma. The communist majority gives him the floor. “The Leader of the Nations” says: “I have two proposals: first, the traitor-democrats should be shot without exception. The second is to paint the Kremlin wall green. Any questions?" After a long pause, one of the deputies stands up: “Comrade Stalin, why green?” Smiling slyly into his mustache, the Generalissimo replies: “I knew that we would have no disagreements on the first issue!” You, dear readers, will be surprised, but part of this anecdote has real historical basis. In December 1932, the curator of the Kremlin commandant's office, Avel Enukidze, came up with a very innovative and, moreover, radical project. In order to “relief design the Mausoleum of V.I. Lenin against the general background of the Kremlin,” he proposed “painting the Kremlin wall in light gray color from the outside along the line from the Arsenalnaya to the Beklemishevskaya towers.” According to Enukidze's calculations, 80,000 rubles were required to repaint the walls. Stalin, Mikoyan, Molotov, Kaganovich supported this idea, as did the rest of the Politburo a few days later. This “non-proletarian” event, at least in color, was scheduled for the spring of 1933. But it was not carried out, and the Kremlin remained red.

And the most ambitious project for the reconstruction of the Kremlin and Red Square was considered by the Council of Ministers of the USSR on June 13, 1947. As a result of the discussion, a government decision was made, which, if implemented, would completely change the appearance of the Kremlin and Red Square. Judge for yourself. The decision provided for the following work to be carried out in 1948 - 1953.

In the Moscow Kremlin:

• reconstruction of the Arsenal building to house the apparatus of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, as well as the government archive;
• reconstruction of the 3rd building (barracks) into living quarters;
• demolition of buildings No. 6, No. 7 (Amusement Palace), No. 8 on Kommunisticheskaya Street. On the vacant site, it was planned to erect a new four-five-story building for government members (12 - 15 apartments);
• covering the courtyard of the BKD to create a meeting hall of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR with three thousand seats; the existing meeting hall of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was turned into the Order Hall of Soviet Awards;
• leaving only the Tsar Cannon and the Tsar Bell on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin. All other domestic and captured guns were transferred from the Moscow Kremlin;
• replacement of sidewalk asphalt and paving stones with granite;
• liquidation of all outbuildings and sports grounds in the Tainitsky Garden and creation of a park;
• construction of a monument to V.I. Lenin.

The following reconstruction work was planned on Red Square:

• design of the monument to Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945;
• relocation of the State Historical Museum to the site of the corner of Red Square and 25 October Street (currently Nikolskaya Street - Author). Accommodation of institutions in the GUM building;
• installation of granite guest stands at the Mausoleum of V.I. Lenin;
• opening of the Victory Monument on the site of the Historical Museum.

Of everything planned by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, only one event was carried out in the period before 1953. In order to improve Red Square and create a general ensemble in combination with the Mausoleum of V.I. Lenin, work was carried out to cover the guest stands at the Mausoleum of V.I. Lenin with granite slabs. Overall the project was grandiose. What was the cost of just one “relocation” of the Historical Museum! And what about the opening of a Victory monument in its place?

But the most interesting thing is the construction of a super-elite residential building in the Kremlin. It is difficult to imagine the true scale of the planned “four to five-story” structure, for which it was necessary to demolish three Kremlin buildings. One can only guess about the size of the 12 to 15 apartments mentioned in the document for government members. And, despite the fact that the construction of this house was planned in the first post-war years, it is difficult to doubt that the infrastructure, decoration, and security there would have been at the highest level. And it’s also extremely interesting who would get these fifteen apartments...

But, as we already know, the Amusement Palace and buildings remained intact and were even restored. The Historical Museum and the Arsenal were not touched, and the Victory Monument was not built... Some points of the mentioned decision of the Council of Ministers, however, were partially implemented, but only after 1953. For example, a monument to Lenin was erected in the Kremlin, outbuildings and sports grounds in the Tainitsky Garden were removed...

THE LAST RESIDENTS

After Stalin's death, the question of liquidating residential premises in the Kremlin was a foregone conclusion. This was largely due to the fact that Khrushchev, who became the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee in September 1953, never lived in the Kremlin himself. And if the first person does not live “behind the wall,” then other high-ranking citizens had to slowly move out. And not always voluntarily. In May 1955, Vyacheslav Molotov moved to Granovsky Street (now Romanov Lane. - Author). Anastas Mikoyan left the Kremlin with him. Then in 1957 it was Lazar Kaganovich’s turn. In 1958 - 1960, the families of deceased leaders of the Soviet state, Dzerzhinsky, Ordzhonikidze, and other personal pensioners left the Kremlin. “First Marshal” Klim Voroshilov fought for his Kremlin apartment to the last. And, by the way, he really became the last one to leave his apartment. This event happened in November 1962, and Voroshilov lived within the Kremlin walls for more than thirty-seven years.

Now, of course, there are no apartments in the sense as we understand this word in the Kremlin. But people live there. Firstly, there is a residence for distinguished guests, and secondly, the Presidential Regiment is stationed there, and the President and some other high-ranking officials have a place to sleep if something happens - there are rest rooms next to their offices. Although managers still prefer to live in the fresh air. Even if they work in the Kremlin...

When working on the material, the book “The Moscow Kremlin - the Citadel of Russia” and the texts of conversations between Felix Chuev and Vyacheslav Molotov from the book “Molotov: Semi-Powerful Overlord” were used.

List of numbering of Kremlin buildings (1926)

1. Government building (1st building)

2. Arsenal

3. Barracks (demolished)

4. Large Officer Corps (demolished)

5. Cavalry Corps (demolished)

6. Amusing building (corner)

7. Amusing building (palace)

8. Amusing building (former pharmacy)

9. Apartments Upper, Lower, Stables building

10. Small Officer Corps (demolished)

11. Kitchen building (demolished)

12. Grenadier Corps (demolished)

13. Patriarchal Palace and Synodal Building

14. Miracle Monastery (demolished)

15. Small Nikolaevsky Palace (demolished)

16. Servant (Service) building (demolished)

17. Ascension Monastery (demolished)

18. Building at the Spassky Gate (residential) (demolished)

19. Building at the Spassky Gate (guardhouse) (demolished)

20. Grand Kremlin Palace

21. Armory Chamber

22. Building at the Borovitsky Gate (guardhouse) (demolished)

23. House near the Church of the Annunciation (demolished)

In addition, demolished or blown up:

1. Monument to Alexander II

2. Church of the Annunciation

3. Church of Constantine and Helena

4. Wood-burning housing

Unlike the Tower of London, the Escurial in Madrid, the palaces of Versailles and Fontainebleau in France, and a huge number of medieval fortresses in Western Europe, long ago turned into museum complexes, the Moscow Kremlin has remained for centuries the main center of Russian statehood, where fundamental decisions for the country were made and human destinies were decided. .

The Kremlin of the 15th-16th centuries was the place of residence of boyars, palace masters, merchants, and the farmsteads of distant monasteries were located here. The development of the Kremlin until the 16th century was very cramped, so Ivan III had to take measures to improve the Kremlin territory: straight streets were laid from Spassky and Nikolsky Gates to Cathedral Square.

From the middle of the 16th century, the entirety of the supreme state, legislative, executive and judicial power was concentrated in the hands of the tsar, and the actions of the authorities were carried out in the name of the tsar and by his decree. The Tsar exercised his power through the Boyar Duma and the order of Secret Affairs (since 1646). The Rank, Local and Ambassadorial orders were subordinate to the Boyar Duma. The order of Secret Affairs was subordinated to the king. The Palace orders were subordinated to the Tsar and the order of Secret Affairs. The Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' had his orders.

All these orders were headed by boyars, as well as clerks and Duma nobles. In the middle of the 17th century, the administrative buildings stretched in one line from the Archangel Cathedral to the Spassky Gate. In the first quarter of the 18th century, Peter I abolished the orders and introduced a system of collegiums in Russia.

After the Time of Troubles, under Mikhail Fedorovich and especially under Alexei Mikhailovich, the Kremlin as a royal residence reached its peak. The royal chambers occupied only one floor of the Terem Palace, the rest of the premises had a state purpose: the Boyar Duma met in the Cross Chamber, and the church court sat in the Prestolnaya Chamber.

Before the fire of 1737, the Kremlin housed many publicly accessible city institutions, such as the Medical Office and the Main Pharmacy.

The courtyards of the nobility and clergy occupied too large an area, and therefore could no longer be located within the Kremlin, so they were gradually pushed back to the areas of Kitay-Gorod and the White City. In the second half of the 18th century, the nobles finally moved out of the Kremlin.

As you know, since the time of Peter, who moved the capital to St. Petersburg, Moscow has been called the “first throne”. And although the entire main imperial and official life took place on the banks of the Neva for more than two hundred years, the Moscow Kremlin was not mothballed. Spiritual and cultural life continued here. Not far from the Kremlin, in the building of the Sukharev Tower, the school of mathematical and navigational sciences, created by decree of Peter I, was located, which was under the jurisdiction of the Kremlin Armory. Simultaneously with the Navigation School, foreign language courses were opened under the Ambassadorial Prikaz, and the Moscow Burmist Chamber was created, which was called upon to collect taxes from all Russian cities, so that gradually it began to serve as the main treasury. The Commandant of Moscow and his office settled in the Poteshny Palace in 1806; before the revolution, the Senate building housed the Moscow Judicial Chamber, which considered political cases, and the Moscow District Court, and officials of the judicial chamber with their families lived in the Cavalry Corps.

For centuries, the Kremlin has been the sacred center of the country. During the reign of Ivan Kalita, the Spassky Monastery was founded here next to the Church of the Savior on Bor. At the beginning of the 14th century, the metropolitan court moved to the Kremlin territory. In 1365, Metropolitan Alexy founded the Chudov Monastery, located closer to Cathedral Square. The history of its foundation is connected with the miraculous healing through the prayer of Metropolitan Alexy of Khansha Taidulla, mother of the Golden Horde khan Janibek. In the 15th-16th centuries, along with the Trinity-Sergius, Joseph-Volokolamsk, Kirillo-Belozersky monasteries, the Chudov monastery was one of the largest in Rus'. In 1407, the widow of Dmitry Donskoy, Princess Evdokia, founded the Ascension Monastery in the Kremlin, which became the tomb of the grand duchesses and other representatives of the grand ducal house. Already under Ivan III, in 1490, the Spassky Monastery was moved beyond the Kremlin walls. Since the end of the 16th century, the Kremlin has been the residence of the Patriarchs of Moscow and All Rus'. Under Patriarch Nikon, new Patriarchal Chambers were erected here next to the royal palace, and after the establishment of the Holy Synod in 1721, the Synodal House.

The Kremlin remained the center of Orthodox life until 1918, with services held daily in its 25 churches and cathedrals. On January 23, 1918, the Soviet government adopted a decree “On freedom of conscience and religious societies,” which was later included in the collection of laws (1918. No. 18) under the title “On the separation of the Church from the state and the school from the Church.” The decree determined that “no church and religious societies have the right to own property, they do not have the rights of a legal entity, and all the property of church and religious societies existing in Russia is declared national property.” From that time on, the cathedral bells in the Kremlin fell silent, the domes were stripped of their crosses, and the churches were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture.

At one time, Alexander I bought a metropolitan house from the Chudov Monastery and, having rebuilt it, gave it to his younger brother Nicholas. The future Emperor Alexander II was born in the Nicholas Palace in 1818. Emperor Nicholas called Moscow “the amiable ancient capital.” He often visited the Grand Kremlin Palace, which he rebuilt, where the royal family’s chambers were located on the first floor, and the second floor was used for ceremonial receptions. It is no coincidence that under Nicholas I the first long railway in Russia was built from St. Petersburg to Moscow.

Typically, visits of the imperial family to the Kremlin were associated with the coronation of a new monarch in the Assumption Cathedral. At this time, the imperial court also moved to Moscow. Coronation festivities lasted for many days and were accompanied by balls, masquerades, and theatrical performances. The last ceremonial arrival of Nicholas II to the Kremlin with his family and retinue took place on the occasion of the tercentenary of the House of Romanov, which was widely celebrated in 1913. And on August 18, 1914, the entire imperial family gathered in the Grand Kremlin Palace in connection with the outbreak of the First World War. Contemporaries recalled that on that day the Kremlin was filled with a huge crowd, whose roar was drowned out by the roar of the bells of Ivan the Great.

In March 1918, by decree of the Council of People's Commissars, Moscow was again declared the capital. A special resolution was adopted on the relocation of the government and party leadership from Petrograd (Smolny) to Moscow (Kremlin). The new leadership of the country settled in the Senate building, and the Red Banner was raised over the Kremlin. The first to enter the Kremlin through the Trinity Gate on March 12, 1918 were V. I. Lenin, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, and Ya. M. Sverdlov, Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

So in the spring of 1918, the ancient Kremlin found new life and new inhabitants.

From the Trinity Gate to the right along the Kremlin wall stretched Palace Street, lined on both sides by the Officers', Kitchen, Grenadier's, three Cavalry, Children's and Maid of Honor buildings, the Amusement Palace and other buildings, which gradually began to be occupied by new residents.

In October 1918, the Ascension Monastery was closed. The nuns, led by the abbess, were evicted from the Kremlin and assigned to the church of the Lefortovo hospital. The Chudov Monastery was also deserted. And new guests also moved into the cells of the monks and nuns.

L. D. Trotsky, in his book “My Life,” describing Kremlin life, admitted that the new Kremlin housing made a strange impression on him: “With its medieval wall and countless gilded domes, the Kremlin, as a fortress of a revolutionary dictatorship, seemed like a complete paradox. True, Smolny, where the Institute of Noble Maidens was previously located, was not in its past intended for workers, soldiers and peasants' deputies. Before March 1918, I had never been to the Kremlin, nor did I know Moscow at all, with the exception of one single building: the Butyrka transit prison, in the tower of which I spent six months in the cold winter of 98–99. As a visitor, one could contemplatively admire the Kremlin antiquity, the Grozny Palace and the Palace of Facets. But we had to settle here for a long time. The close everyday contact of two historical poles, two irreconcilable cultures both surprised and amused...

Before the revolution, Kremlin officials lived in the Cavalry Corps, opposite the Amusement Palace. The entire lower floor was occupied by a high-ranking commandant. His apartment has now been divided into several parts. Lenin and I moved across the corridor. The dining room was common. The food in the Kremlin was very poor at that time. Instead of meat they gave corned beef. Flour and cereals were with sand. Only red chum caviar was in abundance due to the cessation of exports. It is not only in my memory that the first years of the revolution are colored by this unchanging caviar.

The musical clock on the Spasskaya Tower was rebuilt. Now the old bells, instead of “God Save the Tsar,” slowly and thoughtfully rang “The Internationale” every quarter of an hour. The access for cars was under the Spasskaya Tower, through a vaulted tunnel. Above the tunnel is an ancient icon with broken glass. In front of the icon is a long-extinct lamp. Often, when leaving the Kremlin, the eye rested on the icon, and the ear caught the “Internationale” from above. The gilded double-headed eagle still rose above the tower with its bell. Only the crown was removed from him. I advised placing a hammer and sickle over the eagle, so that the gap in time could be seen from the height of the Spasskaya Tower. But they never got around to doing this...

In my room there was furniture made of Karelian birch. Above the fireplace, the clock under Cupid and Psyche chimed with a silver voice. Everything was inconvenient for work. The smell of idle nobility emanated from every chair. But I also approached the apartment on a tangent, especially since in the first years I only had to spend the night in it during my short raids from the front to Moscow.

Almost on the first day of my arrival from St. Petersburg, we talked with Lenin, standing among the Karelian birch trees. Cupid and Psyche interrupted us with a melodious silver ringing. We looked at each other, as if catching ourselves in the same feeling: from the corner the lurking past was listening to us. Surrounded by him on all sides, we treated him without respect, but also without hostility, a little ironically. It would be wrong to say that we were accustomed to the environment of the Kremlin - there were too many dynamics in the conditions of our existence for that. We had no time to “get used to it.” We looked sideways at the situation and said to ourselves ironically and encouragingly to the cupids and psyches: weren’t you expecting us? There's nothing you can do, get used to it. We accustomed the situation to ourselves."

First of all, the new inhabitants of the Kremlin renamed Dvortsovaya Street to Kommunisticheskaya. Also in 1918, the Kremlin was closed to visitors.

At first, V.I. Lenin, like his comrades Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Stalin, Bukharin, Molotov and many others, occupied a two-room apartment (No. 24) in one of the Cavalry buildings, which has survived to this day. But he soon moved to the more spacious home of the prosecutor of the Judicial Institutions, in the Senate building. The apartment was located in the part closer to the Trinity Gate, on the third floor. Lenin lived here with his wife and sister from 1918 to 1923, and members of his family continued to live here until 1939.

The decision to open the Lenin Apartment Museum was made only during the time of N.S. Khrushchev, perhaps on his personal initiative. True, by that time the interior decoration of the premises had already been lost, and it was assigned to the architect G. G. Savinov to restore it. The museum was opened to the public in 1955. Its main attraction was Lenin's personal library, numbering 18 thousand volumes. The interior of the apartment retains a grand piano, and in the kitchen there is a shelf with saucepans made from the first Soviet aluminum. But the situation, of course, was far from Spartan. In 1995, in accordance with the decree of the Prime Minister, the Kremlin Apartment Museum moved to Gorki, where it now occupies a separate building on the territory of the estate park.

In the apartments of all the Kremlin inhabitants there was furniture left over from their former life. We had to eat from dishes with the royal coat of arms: the commandant simply did not have another one.

The Arsenal building housed the barracks and administrative services of the Kremlin Commandant's Office.

Security was entrusted to the Latvian riflemen, subordinating them to the Kremlin commandant. In September 1918, they were replaced by machine gun courses from Lefortovo, which in January 1919 were renamed the First Moscow Machine Gun Courses for the training of Red Army command personnel. Thus, a school for red commanders, who were then called Kremlin cadets, was created here. Since 1930, Kremlin cadets served at post No. 1 at the entrance to the Mausoleum of V. I. Lenin. In 1935, the tasks of protecting the Kremlin were transferred to the Special Purpose Battalion, which fully assumed the responsibilities of protecting members of the Soviet government and became subordinate to the NKVD of the USSR. In the same year, the battalion was reorganized into a special-purpose regiment, and in 1936 into a Separate Kremlin Regiment. By decree of President B.N. Yeltsin on March 20, 1993, it was transformed into the Presidential Regiment.

In September 1918, a special Kremlin telephone room appeared, where a 100-number switchboard was installed, and in January 1922, the Commandant’s Office of the Moscow Kremlin began operating its own automatic telephone exchange. In 1930, the first HF communication lines Moscow-Leningrad and Moscow-Kharkov were put into operation.

In April 1929, on the initiative of the Kremlin commandant R. A. Peterson, a government commission, which included K. E. Voroshilov, V. V. Shmit, A. E. Enukidze, examined the buildings of the Chudov and Ascension monasteries and decided to demolish them , clearing the place for the construction of the Military School of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee with an underground shooting range for machine gunners. True, already in October 1935, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee school was evacuated from the territory of the Moscow Kremlin. And in this part of the Kremlin, inaccessible to visitors, next to the Spasskaya Tower, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee with the Kremlin Theater is located. In the 1950s, the building was transferred to the Supreme Council and the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR. Today this building is called the 14th building.

There were not so many premises suitable for living in the Kremlin, and therefore senior party functionaries and government officials since 1918 lived in the best hotels in the city: the Metropol, National, Central and Savoy, which were transformed into the so-called Houses of Soviets.

In the Kremlin, everyone lived very modestly, like in a large communal apartment. Children rode bicycles through the Kremlin public gardens, bawled, and got underfoot. Then they grew up and had to be taken to school. Over time, it became more and more difficult to live and work here, much less maintain order. In 1931, families of major party leaders began to move from here, and by 1937 almost no one was left here. In the 1930s, those who were not repressed were moved to city apartments. Only Stalin was left to live in the Kremlin, but even he spent most of his time at the Blizhnaya dacha in Volynskoye.

Very close to the Kremlin, across the bridge, a huge house was built in 1931, with the light hand of Yuri Trifonov, known to everyone as the House on the Embankment, where many Kremlin families moved.

Today everyone knows about the fate of this dark gray gloomy house on Serafimovich Street, covered with memorial plaques. It was built according to the design of the architect Boris Mikhailovich Iofan as an exemplary house of the future, in which high-ranking Soviet party and government figures were to live: members of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the Commission of Soviet Control, the Party Control Committee, People's Commissars, Deputy People's Commissars, and chiefs of central administrations. Later they were joined by the first Heroes of the Soviet Union, employees of the apparatus of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, the Comintern, and the People's Commissariat of Defense.

By the way, the same architect was responsible for the design of the Palace of the Soviets, which in 1931 was going to be built on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Savior. According to his design, a sanatorium was built in Barvikha (1931–1935), as well as Soviet pavilions at the World Exhibitions in Paris (1937) and New York (1939).

For the construction of the “House of the Central Executive Committee” in 1927, a government commission was formed, headed by A. I. Rykov, at that time the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. Its members included the Secretary of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR A. S. Enukidze, the author of the project himself B. M. Iofan, Deputy Chairman of the OGPU G. G. Yagoda. All four received apartments in the new building, but only B. M. Iofan lived to old age, the rest were repressed in 1937–1938, as were many of its other residents.

The house is located on an area of ​​more than three hectares and was built for almost four years: from 1928 to 1931. There were 505 huge 7-12 room apartments with small kitchens: the people who lived here, naturally, never ate in the kitchen, but there was enough space to cook for one family. It’s another matter when, in the 40s, almost half of the apartments in the House on the Embankment became communal; in such kitchens, traditional conflicts for communal apartments, and with them scandals and gossip became inevitable. And only thirty years later, during a major renovation, the apartments were made into 4-5 rooms, and the communal apartments were moved out.

The apartments of the House on the embankment had the same furniture, made of bog oak according to the design of the same B. M. Iofan. These were tables, chairs, beds, sideboards, etc. with metal inventory numbers. Instead of a garbage chute, there was a freight elevator, the shaft of which went into the kitchens and in which special employees traveled, collecting bags of garbage put out by residents.

It had its own canteen, library, gym, grocery and department stores, kindergarten, nursery, laundry, outpatient clinic, post office and savings bank. The right wing of the house housed the Club of the Council of Ministers (now the Variety Theater), and the left wing housed the Udarnik cinema, designed for 1,500 spectators.

In this house at different times lived the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Postyshev, the First Secretary of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions Shvernik, aircraft designer A. I. Mikoyan, Lenin's comrade-in-arms P. N. Lepeshinsky, military leaders M. N. Tukhachevsky, G. K. Zhukov, I. X. Bagramyan, F. I. Tolbukhin, the famous Donbass miner A. G. Stakhanov, Chelyuskin pilots M. V. Vodopyanov and N. P. Kamanin, Lenin’s secretaries E. D. Stasova and Fotieva, writers Demyan Bedny and Boris Lavrenev , poet Mikhail Koltsov, director of the ensemble I. A. Moiseev, academicians T. D. Lysenko, V. I. Burakovsky, N. N. Blokhin, V. I. Shumakov, V. P. Glushko and many, many others.

Before the war, the house was considered a special facility and was under the jurisdiction of the NKVD commandant’s office. The watchmen were full-time employees of the committee; they had the keys to all apartments. It was just like that, it was impossible to get into the house from the street, and guests were forbidden to stay for a long time: they had to leave no later than 23.00. The fate of each of those who lived in it is worthy of both respect and regret.

After the war, the idea of ​​gathering all outstanding contemporaries under one roof was abandoned, and memorial plaques began to appear on the walls of the house. Now everyone knows that there were wiretaps, although before it was hard to believe. I was convinced from my own experience that wiretaps were installed in apartments: shortly before the collapse of the USSR, I received an apartment in one of the Central Committee buildings. Our housemates later turned out to be iconic figures of the new Russia. But then, in the mid-80s, B.N. Yeltsin, and G.A. Zyuganov, and many others were not yet so famous and did not occupy their high positions. Not long ago, my wife and I started a European-quality renovation of our apartment, and the finishing guys showed me the “bugs” implanted in the walls. Whether they listened or not was another matter, but they played it just in case. In a word, they guarded, that is, they protected, but at the same time, they did not trust. So it is no coincidence that the fates of many of those who lived in the House on the Embankment did not work out.

Later, by order of Khrushchev, mansions were built on the Lenin Hills so that people could visit each other through the gate. And Budyonny went to Voroshilov to play the harmonica. Even later, “Kosygin’s house” and “Gorbachev’s house” appeared. But starting from the Brezhnev era, members of the Politburo no longer lived together. An attempt to recreate the idea of ​​a home for comrades-in-arms was made during the first presidential term of B. N. Yeltsin. But it turned out to be unsuccessful; very soon everyone fled from the house on Osennaya. Psychologically, it is very difficult and unjustified: both at home and at work, seeing the same faces and having the same conversations. You can’t switch gears, you can’t relax, and if you also take into account that work doesn’t happen without disagreements, then it becomes clear that they automatically transfer to the home dorm. True, it is, of course, convenient for the security service when all those protected are concentrated under one roof.

So, already in the 30s, everyday life gradually left the Kremlin, and it turned exclusively into an administrative center.

Together with the families, pets left the Kremlin: cats and dogs, and they have not been here since then. But there are squirrels and many different birds. Particularly noticeable, of course, are the crows: everyone knows how they love to ride, sliding down on their tails, from the Kremlin domes and what consequences this leads to - the crows peel off gold leaf with their paws. In order to discourage them from such fun, the Kremlin had to acquire a hawk that “patrolls” the sky above the golden domes. When reconstruction was carried out in the 1990s and the Kremlin communications, which had not changed for decades, were torn apart, it was discovered that they were inhabited by hordes of rats, which had to be fought much more seriously than with crows: among other things, the rats even chewed through a government communications cable.

The name Sovnarkom, or Government House, was firmly attached to the Senate building. Here, on the second floor, there was a three-room apartment and J.V. Stalin’s office, which consisted of a spacious reception room and a small workroom. In the reception room sat the head of personal security V.N. Vlasik, Stalin’s first assistant A.N. Poskrebyshev and assistant L.A. Loginov. In the middle of the room, on a large table, lay Soviet and foreign newspapers and magazines.

Then came the so-called dressing room, where colonels and security officers were on duty, who asked visitors to hand over their weapons, if they had any. There was also a coat rack for Politburo members.

The windows of Stalin's office overlooked the Arsenal. The white walls were lined with light oak paneling. Carpet. A large desk littered with books. Bulky, dark wood furniture. A long table covered with green cloth.

The apartment also overlooked the Arsenal and was also furnished with dark, bulky furniture; it was located in the northern part of the building, near the Nikolsky Gate, which was never opened. In the front door, two duty officers stood on both sides of the doors, checking passes.

After Stalin's death, the premises of the first building were never completely renovated. His office became the office of the chairmen of the Council of Ministers: G.M. Malenkov, N.S. Khrushchev, A.N. Kosygina.

And the third floor, in addition to the Lenin Apartment Museum, was given over to the reception of the General Secretary and his office, since it was in the Kremlin that Politburo meetings were held on Thursdays. Another office of the General Secretary was located in the building of the Central Committee of the Party, which lived in 1922 and the first half of 1923 on Vozdvizhenka, and then moved to a huge house on Staraya Square, where the fifth floor of the house was reserved for the secretaries of the Central Committee. The only division of the general department of the Central Committee that served the Politburo was located in the Kremlin. The remaining premises were those of the Council of Ministers and the Supreme Council. Politburo meetings usually took place in the meeting hall of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. By the way, this hall was called Red under Lenin because it was covered with red wallpaper and the chairs in it were upholstered in red plush. Under Stalin, wallpaper was replaced with oak panels and plush with leather.

In the mid-30s, the Kremlin carried out “reconstruction” in two gigantic halls of the Grand Kremlin Palace, Aleksandrovsky and Andreevsky. They knocked down the stucco with miner's jackhammers and destroyed the decor, hastening to turn the former splendor into a dull, long room with wooden desks, where sessions of both chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR traditionally took place after the 1936 elections. Twice a year for three days. Then, however, congresses of creative unions were held there: the Writers' Union, the Composers' Union.

It is impossible not to admire the dedication of the museum specialists who worked here in the 1930s and who preserved fragments of stucco, hiding them in the basements. Already in our time, when, by order of President B.N. Yeltsin, restoration work began to be carried out in these halls, those fragments were very useful.

It is surprising that St. George's Hall and the Chamber of Facets were preserved then: in those years, in everything from clothing to protocol, the style of the revolutionary era and the desire for utilitarian simplicity prevailed.

When on March 27, 1990, at the Third Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, M. S. Gorbachev was elected President of the USSR, his office was still the office of the General Secretary, which was located on the third floor of the Senate, where Politburo meetings continued to take place. Presidential aides and members of the Presidential Council, a new structure that was entirely subordinate to the president, who determined its composition and strength, moved here. The Presidential Council then included state and public figures A. N. Yakovlev, E. M. Primakov, V. G. Rasputin, Ch. T. Aitmatov, N. I. Ryzhkov and a number of others.

But until the end of 1990, the Kremlin primarily remained the House of Government. The Senate building belonged to the apparatus of the Council of Ministers and its management of affairs. The office of the Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers N.I. Ryzhkov was traditionally located in Stalin’s former office.

On December 26, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted the law “On amendments and additions to the Constitution of the USSR in connection with the improvement of the public administration system,” which abolished the Council of Ministers and replaced it with the Cabinet of Ministers. Ryzhkov's government ceased to exist de jure. After the Supreme Soviet of the USSR approved V.S. Pavlov as Prime Minister of the USSR (January 14, 1991), all his deputies and the former apparatus of the Council of Ministers moved from the Kremlin. And from Staraya Square to the Kremlin, the apparatus of the President of the USSR began to move, the head of which was appointed V.I. Boldin. As a matter of fact, this is where he was formed. Initially it was understood that it would be small so as not to duplicate the powerful apparatus of the CPSU Central Committee.

But already at the IV Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR on December 27, 1990, the Vice President of the USSR was elected, and in March 1991 the Presidential Council was dissolved and a new body was formed - the Security Council, then the institute of assistants and advisers to the president was created. At the same time, much was borrowed from the US presidential model. The scheme of presidential structures has undergone significant changes many times, as a completely new institution of power was created. The third floor of the now presidential Senate was still retained by the Politburo.

Today a lot has been said and written about the State Emergency Committee. There are many strange things in this whole story. I think that in 20–30 years, researchers will describe in detail how it all happened, but for now, perhaps the time has not come yet.

The signing of the Union Treaty on the Union of Sovereign States and the division of powers was scheduled for August 20–21 in Novo-Ogarevo. But history decreed otherwise.

In August 1991, I was vacationing at the Valdai sanatorium of the Fourth Main Directorate of the Ministry of Health and was supposed to return to Moscow on the evening of the 19th. At the same time, the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR A.I. Lukyanov, who lived at a distant state dacha, was also vacationing there. On the morning of August 19, having heard the first messages, I began to call Moscow, but it turned out that the government telephone numbers were disconnected, but I easily reached Boldin’s reception using the city number. “Come back, we’ll see there” - that was the only information that I received at that time. I was in Moscow in the evening, when there were already tanks in the city.

The end of August 1991 was marked not only by the collapse of former symbols and monuments throughout the country, for many, including the inhabitants of the Kremlin, it was a time of collapse of illusions. On August 23, in the White House, B. N. Yeltsin called for “during the establishment of democracy to dissolve the governing bodies and nationalize the property of the CPSU, to dissolve the KGB.” And on August 24, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned from his post as General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. On August 29, the Supreme Council banned the activities of the Communist Party and seized party property.

I was amazed by the courage of those 200-300 democrats who came out to Old Square with posters in the August days. Naturally, they had no weapons. They shouted at the Central Committee employees: “Get out immediately! The Communist Party is banned! There were at least one and a half thousand people in the building on Old Square at that hour. At least ten percent of them were armed. I am convinced that if they had something to protect, they would easily disperse the crowd. Meanwhile, these people hastily left their offices, abandoned fax machines, documents, protecting only their own safes. They were ordered to vacate the premises before four o'clock, and they complied with this demand of the crowd, like soldiers following an order.

By that time, many services of the USSR Presidential Administration did not yet have premises in the Kremlin and were located in the building of the CPSU Central Committee. However, even today a number of divisions of the Russian Presidential Administration are located on Old Square.

The USSR Presidential Protocol Management Service, which I headed, was also located in the former premises of the Central Committee. We represented the apparatus of the current president of the Soviet Union and had nothing to do with the Central Committee. When people from the square came into my office and demanded that I leave, I replied that I would leave when I collected my things and sealed the rooms. Those who came, although they were cultured and educated people, were very excited, but I did not hear any threats addressed to me from them. My colleagues and I stayed in the building on Old Square until we prepared our belongings and documentation for shipment. The mayor of Moscow at that time was G. Kh. Popov. I called him, and he sent his representatives, in whose presence the premises belonging to the apparatus of the President of the USSR were sealed. And only at 20.00 I calmly left the building on Old Square and headed to the Kremlin. Despite the turbulent events that took place, all our material assets were completely intact, even the gift storeroom, where truly valuable things were kept.

The next morning, at the appointed hour, trucks were delivered to us, and the officers assigned to them helped load and unload our property. That day, together with several employees of the USSR Presidential Administration, I moved to the Kremlin, to the first entrance of the first building, where we were temporarily housed in small rooms on different floors.

Life went on. M. S. Gorbachev also had visits both abroad and throughout the country. On October 23–24, we visited Spain, then France, where we met with Francois Mitterrand. Who would have thought that in just two months the Soviet Union would no longer exist!

In November - early December, Gorbachev went to Kyrgyzstan, where he was on a working visit and where he had many meetings with workers at enterprises and scientists. People expressed their attitude to the events that took place and were waiting for some kind of solution. And it was obvious that everyone in their hearts regretted that the Union was collapsing. However, the results of the Ukrainian referendum on independence once again confirmed that the former Union will no longer exist.

On December 24, 1991, Mikhail Sergeevich said goodbye to his employees, and on the 25th he addressed the people. In his television speech, M.S. Gorbachev announced that he was ceasing his activities as President of the USSR, and also said that he believed in his fellow citizens, wished them all the best, and ten minutes later, in the presence of the Minister of Defense, Marshal E.M. Shaposhnikov, gave B. N. Yeltsin a suitcase with nuclear attack codes. In a few days (December 30), the Soviet Union would celebrate its 69th anniversary.

On December 27, B. N. Yeltsin occupied the office of M. S. Gorbachev in the Kremlin, over which two days earlier the state flag of the USSR had been lowered and the tricolor flag of the Russian Federation had been raised.

The services of the Russian presidential apparatus were located in the 14th building back in August, immediately after the putsch. When, after 1991, the entire complex of buildings, including the Senate, was put up for reconstruction, the actual residence of the first President of the Russian Federation was located in the building of the former Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Today, the 14th building is staffed by deputy heads of the presidential administration and its main apparatus. And the Senate building is the residence of the President of the Russian Federation. Apart from the president, only his secretariat and the head of the administration are located here.

Speaking about the inhabitants of the Kremlin, one cannot fail to mention the employees of the Kremlin museums, which house a unique collection that clearly represents the history of Russian culture. During all periods of the two-century history of the Kremlin storages, museum workers have always done everything possible to preserve the priceless treasures entrusted to them.

For the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution, it was planned to open a museum of gifts to Stalin in the building of the Armory Chamber, designed to testify to “the most important events of the era of revolution and the construction of socialism.” In addition to gifts, they were going to display the double-headed eagle from the Spasskaya Tower, “pierced by soldiers’ bullets,” royal standards, revolutionary banners, and other similar relics. But there were so many gifts for Stalin that this idea had to be abandoned.

Since 1918, the Kremlin has long remained a closed facility. There was a strict access control regime on its territory. And only on December 9, 1953, the Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers G.M. Malenkov signed a decree allowing Soviet citizens to freely visit the Kremlin as a historical relic. Today we can say that this resolution was the first step towards the liberalization of the Soviet regime.

Access to the Kremlin was opened only seven months after the adoption of the corresponding resolution in the summer of 1954. Here it was possible to examine only the Tsar Cannon and the Tsar Bell. After some time, the cathedrals were opened, the last to be “declassified” was the Armory Chamber. But in reality, I believe, the Kremlin opened during the International Festival of Youth and Students, held in Moscow in the summer of 1957.

Since then, every day except Thursday, from 10 am to 6 pm, the Kremlin is open to visitors. We inherited Thursday as a day off from Soviet times, since it was on Thursdays that the Politburo met in the Kremlin. Millions of Russian and foreign citizens have the opportunity to get acquainted with the Armory Chamber, historical relics and shrines of the Kremlin churches, and in the former Patriarchal Palace visit the Museum of Applied Arts and Life of Russia of the 17th century. On the basis of the state museums of the Moscow Kremlin, the State Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve "Moscow Kremlin" was formed in 1991.

In recent years, the tradition of holding an annual reception in the Alexander Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace, held by the president in honor of the best graduates of military academies and universities of all branches of the military, has been established. Also at the end of June, the All-Russian Ball of High School Graduates is held in the Kremlin. If the president manages to find time, he always comes to greet yesterday’s schoolchildren and wish them happiness and success.

The commandant is responsible for order in the Kremlin. The condition of all buildings is monitored by the Commandant's Office together with the Presidential Administration. Basically, the territory is cleaned by the economic part, where, as a rule, civilians work, sweeping, cleaning and scrubbing from early morning until late at night. They also have the appropriate equipment at their disposal. However, there are exceptions, like in 1998, when a hurricane knocked down many trees, so that even the Kremlin walls were damaged. In such cases, the Presidential Regiment is involved in the work, which normally performs completely different tasks.

Just a few years ago it was impossible to imagine that a time could come when spiritual life would return to Cathedral Square, that prayers would be heard in the Kremlin cathedrals, and in the Kremlin squares not only the hum of the voices of numerous tourists would be heard, but also the sounds of music and opera arias .

Today, the 5,000-seat venue for party congresses at the State Kremlin Palace has also found new life. It was turned into the Kremlin Ballet Theater, created in 1990 by the famous Russian choreographer, People's Artist of Russia Andrei Petrov.

By May 9, 2005, a large-scale reconstruction of the sixth floor of the State Kremlin Palace was completed. It was there that a memorable government reception was held in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Great Victory, which was held by the President of the Russian Federation and which took place after the parade on Red Square. The reception was attended by veterans of the Great Patriotic War, prominent state and public figures of Russia, as well as heads of state and government who came to share this holiday with all citizens of the Russian Federation. In 2006, the complete reconstruction of the State Concert Hall will be completed, which is being carried out gradually, starting from the lower floors, where engineering equipment has already been replaced, unique lighting equipment has been reinstalled, and the interior of the auditorium has been changed. The palace was not closed entirely, because it is currently the largest concert venue in the country. A decision was also made to reconstruct the 14th building of the Kremlin, where the office of the presidential administration is located. There has been no renovation here since the 30s of the last century. The interior of the hall where the president reads his annual message to the Federal Assembly will also be updated.

Notes:

Quote by: Titlinov B.V. The Church during the Revolution. M.; L., 1923. pp. 109–110.

TrotskyL. My life: Experience of autobiography. M., 1991. pp. 338–340.

The royal courtyard, monastery cells, official quarters, then the Bolshevik communal apartment and, finally, the presidential office - all these are fragments of the history of the Moscow Kremlin

After the revolution, they thought about running a tram right through its territory, but there wasn’t enough money. And a little later, only those who did not ride trams remained in the Kremlin apartments.

When was the last tenant sent away from the Kremlin? Who can still boast of Kremlin registration? And for whom do they always keep a large bed made up in a Kremlin hotel hidden from prying eyes?

Their Majesties' Water Closet

By the way, the first President of Russia Boris Yeltsin, insisting on the return of the historical name (in Soviet times it was the building of the Workers' and Peasants' Government, the first building), categorically objected to the word “palace”. We agreed on the wording “Kremlin Senate”. Although the current inhabitants of the corridors of power say in the old fashioned way: the first building. Today, for example, state awards ceremonies are held in its luxurious Catherine Hall. But few of the guests know what kind of dome is above them: for the first time in Russia, 20 meters in diameter without supports is laid out half a brick thick. However, during the “state acceptance” at the end of the 18th century, Kazakov personally climbed onto the dome and even jumped to demonstrate the reliability of the structure.

At one time, high-ranking officials worked in the Senate, the Moscow district prosecutor lived, and there was also a service apartment for the minister of the imperial court. The imperial court itself - in the form of the current Grand Kremlin Palace - appeared on the territory of the Kremlin 160 years ago at the behest of Nicholas I and through the efforts of the architect Konstantin Ton. At the same time, he created the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.
According to the plan of Nicholas I, the luxurious palace, instead of the previous one, was supposed to include “everything that in people’s memory is closely connected with the idea of ​​​​the abode of the Sovereign.” Apparently, to refresh this memory, in the absence of the royal family in Moscow, social events of the Moscow nobility were held in the palace.

By that time, the Kremlin had already had running water for a long time. The Vodovzvodnaya Tower supplied water from the river for the winter garden and swimming pool, which was built here back in the 15th century, and for the soap houses - the royal baths. But in the middle of the 19th century, a “master company for servicing water closet machines” appeared at the royal court. That is, a company of plumbers who were engaged in installing and repairing toilets in the imperial palaces. Before this, royalty used chamber pots. And very simple people use “hole in the ground” toilets.

At the beginning of the 20th century, according to some sources, up to 4 thousand people lived permanently in the Kremlin. Including about a thousand monks in the Chudov and Ascension monasteries, officials and palace servants. All these people were decisively pushed out of the Kremlin in the spring of 1918 by the new Soviet government. The monasteries were demolished a little later.

At first, Lenin lived in the Cavalry Buildings (they were later demolished during the construction of the Kremlin Palace of Congresses). But soon Ilyich moved to an apartment specially prepared for him on the 3rd floor in the very palace of the governing Senate. Under the Bolsheviks, the Council of People's Commissars, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and several “apartments” were located here.

A warm toilet remained a curiosity and a privilege - in the leader’s apartment there was a fenced off combined bathroom with a bathtub equipped with a shower hose and an Ideal Standard water closet. By the way, Lenin’s toilet survived Soviet rule and is kept today in the storerooms of the museum in Gorki. Ilyich turned out to be a lover of technical innovations and conveniences - he ordered the installation of the first automatic telephone exchange in the Kremlin. It was later that Stalin, having become the sole owner of the country, ordered his number to be deleted from all reference books. Party comrades were connected to the leader only through a telephone operator.

Under Lenin, in December 1918, the first elevator appeared in the Kremlin. After the August assassination attempt, it was difficult for the leader of the world proletariat to climb the stairs home. Another elevator made it possible to get directly from Ilyich’s apartment to the roof, where a gazebo was equipped. If electricity was installed in the Kremlin under the Tsar, then central heating instead of stove heating, for example, appeared in the Senate Palace in 1927. Gas was installed in the first Kremlin apartments in 1929.

To arrange Lenin's apartment, the original layout of the building was changed, blocking off several rooms with new walls. The apartment turned out to be quite spacious. Ilyich’s own bedroom is about 18 square meters. His wife Nadezhda Krupskaya lived in the same room. The largest room - 55 meters - was occupied by the leader's elder sister Anna. My younger sister Manyasha lived 20 meters away. In addition to the bathroom, it had its own kitchen (about 20 meters) and a dining room.

However, Lenin’s apartment was furnished modestly by today’s standards. In a country devastated by revolution and civil war, there was a sense of tension with both food and the simplest utensils. Therefore, at first, dispatches like the one unearthed by the authors of the recently published, but already rare book “The Moscow Kremlin. Citadel of Russia": "Dear comrade! I ask you to provide for V.I. Lenin... an electric portable lamp for the table, two bowls, a rolling pin, a kettle for the stove, a spatula and a broom for collecting litter... (12 points in total. - Ed.) With rev. priv. M.I. Ulyanova.”

At first, only Clara Zetkin, who was placed in one of the chambers of the Grand Kremlin Palace, received free rations among high-ranking revolutionary Kremlin officials. For some reason, Leon Trotsky also ate “for free”. But Joseph Stalin was entitled to rations without restrictions, but for a fee, albeit 50% of the cost. In addition, for example, in 1923, judging by the documents, 7,956 rubles were collected from all Kremlin residents. 97 kopecks rents. Moreover, the capital’s commissar, the revolutionary “mayor” of Moscow, Lev Kamenev, was unexpectedly listed among the malicious defaulters.

Visiting the dictator

The future generalissimo and father of nations, before moving into the first building, lived in the Kremlin in four places - in the Cavalry Corps, and in the former “boyar corridor” of the Grand Kremlin Palace, and in two apartments of the Amusement Palace. This building received this name at one time because it was built for the royal children. It was there, unable to bear the “fun” and humiliation of her husband, that Stalin’s second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, committed suicide. Today the Amusement Palace is used by technical services. Nothing from the Stalinist situation has been preserved there. Just as the cult of the leader was previously instilled, in the same way it was mercilessly debunked, erasing the signs of the era during renovations.

Stalin's main apartment is five rooms on the first floor of the Senate Palace. There the leader lived with his son Vasily and daughter Svetlana. In the basement of the building, so that the growing son of the dictator would not get bored, a metalwork and carpentry workshop was equipped. The withdrawn and suspicious Stalin had few guests. But in 1942, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill became one of them. He flew in to talk face to face and report: there will be no second front in Europe this year, but the allies will try to pull back at least part of Hitler’s troops from the Soviet front by operating in Africa. Stalin was very unhappy with the news, but decided to maintain relations with Churchill personally, inviting him for a drink at his home. As Churchill wrote in his memoirs, the apartment seemed very modest to him.

However, the masterly habits of the Soviet ruler manifested themselves in other ways. During the war, even new equipment - tanks and self-propelled guns - was brought right under the windows of Stalin's apartment for inspection. While the country was receiving bread on ration cards, life was in full swing in the Kremlin buffet. For example, on December 4, 1941, the hastily and incorrectly printed menu for a dinner in honor of the head of the Polish government in exile, General Sikorski, included black caviar, game, and sterlet in champagne. This could not fail to impress the guest.

The last entry about Stalin in the Kremlin house register is “discharged due to death.”

The dictator's personal belongings are today kept in museum storerooms. Nothing remains of the very last Stalinist apartment, just like the Leninist one. During the renovation, even under President Yeltsin, even the layout of the premises changed. Almost everywhere in the building of the Kremlin Senate, the section of walls laid by the architect Kazakov was restored. On the site of Lenin's office today there is a marble fireplace room. And where Stalin’s apartment was, there are technical premises.

In 1955, Nikita Khrushchev, having become the master of the country, decided to evict all tenants from the Kremlin. However, the latter moved out only a few years later: Kliment Voroshilov occupied an apartment in a building adjacent to the Armory Tower, next to the Armory Chamber, and lost his Kremlin registration in 1962.

But to say that since then no one has lived in the Kremlin means to seriously sin against the truth.

Firstly, in the historical building of the Kremlin arsenal, converted into a barracks, today an entire presidential regiment is quartered. Secondly, as they say, Boris Yeltsin had to spend the night in the rest room next to the current presidential office several times. Thirdly, there is a real hotel in the Kremlin, which, however, consists of only... one room.

Vladimir Lenin set the fashion for frontal briefing to the desktop

All the troubles in Russia are because Lenin is not according to Feng Shui! This was the joke in Russia at the height of democratic reforms. But you must agree - in every joke born of the people's collective consciousness, there is some deep truth... After all, in fact, the leader of the world proletariat is energetically connected with the Mausoleum. And even more - directly with the most important building of the Kremlin, where he lived and worked for a long time. By the way, after his death, all members of the USSR government and, in turn, all the top officials of the Soviet state, except Khrushchev, sat here. And then - the first and only president of the USSR. Despite the fact that none of the leaders of the USSR wanted to move into the office of their predecessor, they all worked in the same building. They say that Yeltsin, being the first new resident in the Kremlin already in the post-Soviet era, fundamentally chose an office with windows facing in the opposite direction from the offices of the leaders of the Soviet era. But was the Cabinet No. 1 of the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin inherited by his successor, and then by the next successor? This is what I will tell you today. By the way, all the top officials of the Russian Federation in their office used and continue to use the traditional method of arranging furniture for executives, which became popular even under Lenin! Representative office of the President in the Kremlin

Behind the wall of the Working Office is the Representative (front) Office of the President - it is decorated more elegantly and solemnly than all other working rooms. In the representative office, meetings with heads of foreign states, negotiations are held, and high state awards are presented. There are: a work desk, an oval conference table, and chairs for one-on-one conversations by the fireplace. On the arms of the chairs are lion heads, a symbol of state power. This office is located in the Small or Oval Hall of the Senate Palace, which is the second most important main hall of the residence (after Catherine's). They say that they called it “oval” already in the 90s, in imitation of the Americans, but in shape it is really oval - in accordance with the “highest architectural fashion” of the 18th century, and was designed by the architect Kazakov much earlier than their Oval Office. So who imitated whom is still a question...

By the fireplace in the Oval Hall

The Oval Hall is given a special solemnity by its architectural design: the color of the walls is pale light green with white, an unusual oval-shaped dome, and crystal chandeliers. The decoration of the executive office is a large malachite fireplace, lined with thin plates of malachite, selected so that the natural pattern smoothly passes from one plate to another and seems as if it was carved from a single piece of stone shimmering in different shades. By the fireplace there are comfortable chairs for one-on-one negotiations, a place for official photography and filming. In the middle is a large oval conference table. The four niches of the Representative Cabinet now house sculptures of Russian emperors of the 18th-19th centuries: Peter I, Catherine II, Nicholas I and Alexander II. The magnificent parquet flooring of the Oval Hall is like a carpet; it is recreated according to ancient drawings and sketches from dozens of types of valuable and hard wood. Inlaid parquet is a traditional element of the interiors of palace ensembles, and it was by the end of the 18th century that this art became widespread in Russia and became traditional.

Executive office in the Oval Hall

Since many fragments of the interiors of the Senate were lost, in 1991 the interior decoration of these halls had to be created anew. Fortunately, almost all design documents of the 18th century have been preserved. It was thanks to these drawings, plans and drawings that it was possible to identify numerous changes made in the design of the hall over the course of two centuries. After a thorough study of archival data, restorers determined that the Oval Hall underwent the most serious changes in 1824. So it was under Yeltsin that the Senate Palace again became a palace (as under Catherine the Great).

Lenin lived on the 3rd floor

After the Senate Palace was built, Catherine II chose a spacious but cozy office in a semicircular rotunda (now the presidential library is located here). But the empress did not visit her office often (probably because, as you know, she generally did not like Moscow). Further, during the time of the Romanovs, the reigning persons did not have their own apartments in the Senate Palace - for example, the “business quarters” of Nicholas II were located in the Grand Kremlin Palace.

Desk of Nicholas II

But Lenin fell in love with the Senate building - his office (50 sq. m., 2 windows) was on the third floor. Until the summer of 1993, there was a museum-apartment of the leader, who was then transported to Gorki. The main distinguishing feature of Lenin's apartments is the library, which contains almost 40 thousand volumes. There were bookcases in almost all the rooms. Lenin preferred the third floor (occupied 4 rooms). Stalin had 5 rooms on the first and an office on the second. Brezhnev moved to the third floor. All the general secretaries, right up to Gorbachev, sat here. The Tsek's office was twice as large as Yeltsin's office, who chose a place on the second floor. And its windows fundamentally look in a completely different direction.

Lenin's office was moved from the Kremlin to the museum

Stalin Empire style

Stalin settled in the Kremlin in 1922 - soon after he became Secretary General of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). His office (more than 150 sq. m., five windows) was on the second floor. Already in 1933, at the direction of Stalin, the building was remodeled for the first time, the interiors were changed: the walls were covered with oak panels with Karelian birch inserts, and the same oak doors were installed. There was nothing superfluous on the table: a telephone, a pen, an inkwell, a decanter of water, a glass of tea, an ashtray.

In the left corner is Brezhnev's famous "horned" clock

In the corner of Stalin's office, as well as Lenin's, there was a stove that was heated with wood - central heating appeared in the Kremlin only in the late 30s. On the ground floor, Stalin had another office - his home office. The leader’s apartment was also located here, where his children Svetlana and Vasily also lived. They say that during reconstruction, when they raised the floors in Stalin's office, they discovered a secret passage leading to the dungeon. Perhaps it was just a newspaper rumor.

The most faceless office

Khrushchev’s office (100 sq. m., 4 windows, 3rd floor) had the same oak panels and doors as under Stalin: having debunked his cult of personality, the new owner did not change the interiors.

Nikita Sergeevich did not have a single bookcase. As old Kremlin business executives recall, it was the most faceless office, which for 10 years had the same uninhabited appearance. The apartment was cluttered with many tacky souvenirs that periodically appeared and disappeared. These were models of satellites, airplanes, steam locomotives... - everything that Soviet and foreign citizens presented to Khrushchev in abundance. And also numerous vases, including with portraits of Khrushchev himself. On one of them Nikita Sergeevich was depicted in the uniform of a lieutenant general. Brezhnev and "Height" The Soviet leaders never agreed to move into the apartments of their predecessors. So Leonid Ilyich, when he overthrew Nikita Sergeevich, was equipped with an office (100 sq. m., 3 windows, 3rd floor) away from Khrushchev’s. In party slang, Brezhnev’s apartments were called “Vysota.” The oak panels on the walls were replaced with lighter ones with inlay. And on the table appeared the famous horned clock, which during the life of the Secretary General flashed in almost all TASS photographs. In the early 80s, when the Secretary General was already having difficulty moving, “electric traction” was invented for him. Not far from the office, a personal elevator was installed (before that, all the leaders used a common one), which was supposed to lower Leonid Ilyich into the basement, and there, on a special electric car (it was something like a chair on wheels), they were going to transport Brezhnev to the neighboring building, to the plenums Central Committee of the CPSU. Then both Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko sat in the former Brezhnev office. But their short stay did not affect either the interiors or the interior decoration of the apartments.

Gorbachev's office was bursting at the seams

Gorbachev, having become Secretary General in April 1985, refused to enter the former Brezhnev office - an apartment was equipped for him (100 sq. m., 5 windows, 3rd floor) between Leonid Ilyich’s “Vysota” and Khrushchev’s office. Of course, perestroika and redevelopment immediately began on the Gorbachev floor, and a moire design appeared in the office - the walls were covered with silk in pastel yellow tones. For the first time, expensive furniture made from Karelian birch was brought in, and it was replaced several times. Kremlin business executives recall a “symbolic incident”: in the spring of 1991, during a heavy downpour, the ceiling leaked in the secretary general’s office. The caretakers interpret this in their own way: not only was the USSR collapsing, the residence of the general secretaries was also bursting at the seams.

Yeltsin ordered a table from Italy

Boris Yeltsin moved to the Kremlin immediately after the putsch - in September 1991. Feeling that USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev was losing control over the country, the Russian President, without much hesitation, laid claim to his main Moscow residence. At the end of 1991, after the collapse of the USSR and Gorbachev’s departure from the Kremlin, Yeltsin moved into the office of the Secretary General. Morals in the Kremlin began to change at the end of 1993. First of all, according to the observations of his comrades, the changes were explained by changes in the character of Yeltsin himself. The former first secretary of the regional committee began to awaken regal manners. At this time, the president started a grandiose renovation of the 1st building. Those closest to him, perceiving the changes in the boss’s character, practically imposed on him a pompous imperial style, replete with stucco, gilding and furniture with bent legs. Cossack's drawings were brought to light, according to which it was supposed to reconstruct the 1st building. All the old partitions inside the building were destroyed - only the outer walls were untouched. Window openings and ceiling vaults, parquet and oak panels were removed; furniture that belonged to Stalin, Molotov, Kaganovich and other historical residents of the Kremlin was sold at auction. Lenin’s museum-apartment was moved “for settlement” to Gorki. After the renovation, most of the premises of the 1st building began to be occupied by the president's apartments - work and executive ones. Yeltsin's office is a room on the second floor (75 sq. m, 3 windows) with a small reception area. By a strange coincidence, the size of the presidential office became almost the same as that of the tsar’s office, located in the Grand Kremlin Palace. From the furnishings: a 205 cm long desk, custom-made in Italy, and a meeting table.

On December 31, 1999, these apartments were inherited by Vladimir Putin. It was here that Dmitry Medvedev moved in on May 7, 2008. Pavel Borodin, former manager of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation (it was he who carried out the reconstruction), claims that in 1993, before determining the “dislocation” of office No. 1, bioenergy therapists were specially invited to the Kremlin, who confirmed that these 75 square meters. m on the 2nd floor in the center of the residence - the best energy location in the building of the former Senate. Perhaps for this reason, little has changed over time in the presidential office: along the walls there are the same bookcases with reference books and encyclopedias. The only decorations are a few ceramic goblets on the floor.

Sources: tabloid.vlasti.net; kp.ru

Let's take a walk through the Moscow old town today. Yes, in Moscow, like in any normal European city (St. Petersburg does not count), there is an old city that we have lost. More precisely, they didn’t lose it so much as they took it away from us and still won’t get it back. The old city of Moscow is the Kremlin, officially the largest medieval fortress according to the Guinness Book of Records and a completely closed area almost 100 years ago, which is no longer even considered a district.

But everything is in order.

Here, for example, is the hem of the Moscow Kremlin in the 17th century

A wonderful painting-reconstruction of our contemporary - artist Sergei Glushkov.

As you can see, living in the city center then meant living in the Kremlin, i.e., like in many European cities, within the historical part of the city, surrounded by a fortress wall.

By the 20th century, the population of the Kremlin, of course, had thinned out somewhat, but still the Kremlin remained a full-fledged district of the city, all the gates were open, and the Tainitsky Garden was one of the favorite places for leisurely walks with a beautiful view.

In the background stands a monument to Alexander II, which the Bolsheviks, of course, dismantled almost immediately after the revolution.

Among the greenery you can see the small dome of the Church of the Annunciation in Zhitny Dvor.

This is what this church, attached to the Kremlin tower, looked like until it was demolished in 1932.

Some completely cozy provincial corner, even the bench was picturesquely askew.

The temple stood on the site of an old livestock yard, where unmilled grain - rye - was brought from state lands, as well as hay, oats and other supplies, which were then distributed among the “sovereign people”. This is, in the most literal sense, an old Russian state feeding trough. A stone church was built here in 1731, and even before 1831, next to the tower in the wall there was a Porto-Wash Gate, through which the Kremlin washerwomen went to the river to wash the sovereign’s “trousers.”

View of the garden, a helipad has now been installed here

Again, notice the whitewashed tower. As today’s experience shows, something unpainted in Moscow by local authorities has always been considered a disorder, curbs are still painted, the Kremlin is still painted, but if before it was whitewashed from time to time, then the Bolsheviks who came to power began to paint it red color. If you are near the Kremlin, pay attention - most of the walls and towers do not have the original color of the brick, but are painted red.

But here is the territory completely closed to ordinary people on the back side of the Spasskaya Tower and the unpreserved Church of St. Catherine of the Ascension Monastery.

The most perfect city center, a walk-through courtyard. Go through any gate and also exit

Spassky Gate - exit from the Kremlin to Red Square.

Now permanently closed and only for employees of the Federal Security Service and the Presidential Administration

Here in the Kremlin the fabulous view of the Chudov Monastery has not been preserved.

The Senate building... The courtyard is now completely closed, and there are not even contemporary photographs.

Interestingly, the dome was originally crowned with St. George the Victorious slaying the serpent, but during the war of 1812 it disappeared. They say that the French took it as a trophy, and when the District Court was located in the building, it was crowned with a crown with a brief inscription under it LAW. To which the Muscovites responded with an epigram: In Russia there is no law, but a pillar and a crown on the pillar.

In Soviet times, even the inscription “LAW” was dismantled

What is most interesting is that in our time the historical truth has been restored and St. George has been erected again.

What else is hiding in Moscow's old town?

For example, the Amusement Palace of the 17th century

Absolutely amazing old photo. On one side there is an old palace, and on the other there are living quarters, even clothes are being dried.

Now here, again, is a completely closed area, and the Kremlin commandant’s office is located

Modern look

We cannot see the amazing arches of the Arsenal in our old city. Again the area is closed

And no one will let you climb the wall in your own old city.

Before the revolution, the Kremlin even had a winter garden, please come and enjoy

The funny thing is that it still exists, but the territory is so closed that no one even really suspects its existence

And before, you could even take a dashing ride around the Kremlin in a cab? Who did this bother?

There are some beggars sitting near the Tsar Bell. The city lives its own life.

By the way, about beggars

For example, the legend of Art Nouveau, the artist Alphonse Mucha, walked around the Kremlin and took a photograph:

I returned home, developed it, turned it back and forth and as a result painted the painting “Winter Night”:

There was a great vibrant old town, but as you know, everything changes when they come. Bolsheviks.

To begin with, in order to knock out the cadets, the Kremlin came under artillery fire. Here, for example, is what the Small Nicholas Palace looked like as a result, which was eventually demolished and a large administrative building, now occupied by the Presidential Administration, was built instead of it and the monasteries

Sent by the Germans under seal, Lenin fulfilled his promise, the government was overthrown, but for some reason his comrades were in no hurry to leave the First World War, which was so necessary for Germany, which was already barely fighting on two fronts, but nevertheless actively advanced deep into Russia, which is why the Bolshevik government was seriously scared and decided, just in case, to move from Petrograd to Moscow. Peace was concluded after all, but it turned out that within Russia itself there were much more threats to the Bolshevik power than from the outside, therefore, according to the old Russian tradition of appanage princes, the Bolsheviks dug in in the Kremlin. The old city was closed to ordinary people, and the Spassky Gate slammed shut and is still not open.

Interestingly, the Soviet government was guarded by Latvian riflemen, which was very convenient. Firstly, they are non-locals, have no relatives in Moscow, don’t go home, live right there in the Kremlin, have no friends among the local population, so in the event of any trouble they will shoot at Muscovites without a twinge of conscience. Secondly, many don’t even speak Russian, so it will be difficult for the locals to come to an agreement with them if something happens. Mercenaries are mercenaries. For the same reason, the Vatican is still guarded exclusively by Swiss mercenaries from German cantons who do not speak Italian.

Latvian riflemen suppressed uprisings in Yaroslavl, Kaluga, Murom and other cities. Theodors Eichmans, one of the Latvian riflemen, subsequently made a dizzying career, was one of the initiators of Stalin's repressions and the first head of the Gulag. So once again, when Latvia starts crying about Soviet repressions, remember these facts.

But we're talking about the old city. New owners have arrived...

... and completely closed down an entire area of ​​the city. Of course, inside the fortress walls it is somehow calmer.

The first Soviet leaders both worked and lived in the Kremlin. In general, almost no one left it without security.

There was even a kindergarten on site for the children of party workers:

The Kremlin was closed throughout the 1920s, throughout the 1930s, throughout the 1940s... Muscovites have even gotten used to the fact that the Kremlin is the seat of the authorities and have finally stopped considering it as a district of the city.

The Kremlin was opened to the public only under Khrushchev, in 1955, or rather, a small part of it was opened with passages to Cathedral Square. Essentially what is still open, but most of the original area of ​​the city is still closed. At the same time, it was forbidden to live in this area, and the last residents left the Kremlin only in 1961. The Kremlin finally turned into a museum, in which not only you cannot walk freely, but even restrictions on photography were lifted only a few years ago.

To finally finish off the old city, the old Arsenal buildings were demolished:

And in their place, in a huge pit, the Grand Kremlin Palace was built

Okay, they destroyed part of the old city, but even in the Soviet photo on the right, the city is still alive.

As one could see, he is alive both along the walls and in the closed territories now occupied by the commandant’s office, but, alas, like almost a hundred years ago, the authorities prefer to live in a state of siege, holding defenses inside the fortress walls.

It's better to look at an old postcard.

White Kremlin, white garden, ice on the river. Old city! Love Moscow!